LONG LIFE AND CREATIVITY: My TechCentralStation column for tomorrow looks at this subject — but as an InstaPundit Premium^TM subscriber, you can read it now. Is that a great deal, or what?

TOM MAGUIRE offers a helping hand to Dan Okrent.

SHOULD BLOGGERS TRUST THE F.E.C.?

UPDATE: Mike Krempasky: “I wouldn’t.”

I’LL BE ON CNBC’S KUDLOW & COMPANY at about 5:50 p.m. Eastern today, talking about citizens’ media.

UPDATE: Trey Jackson has the video, and Duane Patterson has a transcript.

CONDOM ADS ON NETWORK TV: It’s fine with me, though no doubt some people will complain.

A MAJORITY OF AMERICANS SUPPORT SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM, according to a new poll. Two caveats: (1) it’s from Zogby; and (2) I suspect that most people’s feelings on this are fairly provisional at the moment. Nonetheless, it suggests that Bush’s proposals aren’t as unpopular as some have been saying.

JOHN O’SULLIVAN ON TURKEY AND THE E.U.

All three crises are extremely dangerous. Yet most European and Turkish politicians are sleepwalking into them behind the banner “There is no Plan B” — Plan A being Turkey’s EU admission. And Washington echoes the same slogan because it strongly supports the Turkish application.

In reality there is always a Plan B, even if the politicians avoid considering it until Plan A has collapsed. Under this particular Plan B, the United States would rescue Turkey and the EU from their joint crises while also advancing U.S. interests in transatlantic integration.

It would work as follows:

First, the EU and the United States (together with its partners in NAFTA) would merge their markets to form TAFTA — or a transatlantic free trade area.

Second, they would invite all the existing European countries not in the EU, including Turkey, Norway and Switzerland, to join this enlarged TAFTA. (Ukraine, Russia and Latin American countries outside NATFA would be eligible to join once they met criteria similar to those required for EU entry.)

Third, this TAFTA would establish joint procedures for harmonizing existing and new regulations between NAFTA, the EU and non-EU states,.

Fourth, free movement of labor would not be a provision in TAFTA, but there would be preferential immigration rules between members.

Laid out in this way, such a Plan B inevitably sounds utopian. Many of its individual features, however, have been widely discussed for years. Indeed, a full-scale EU-U.S. free trade area almost came about a decade ago.

At the time it was vetoed by the French. But Europeans might now see the value of a program for economic integration that does not involve free immigration — but that would offer Turkey a solid substitute for EU membership, mollify the Islamic world, and build an long-term economic bridge to Russia, North Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

And in their currently shaken state, even the French might be prepared to accept American leadership out of the crisis — so, Condi, act quickly.

Read the whole thing.

BILL ROGGIO WONDERS WHY The New York Times is publishing anti-terror secrets.

MICHAEL TOTTEN is photoblogging from Oregon’s Empty Quarter.

TERRORISTS AT HOME?

NEW YORK May 31, 2005 — Two U.S. citizens accused of being al-Qaida loyalists were each ordered held without bail Tuesday as they appeared in federal courtrooms in New York and Florida. . . .

Prosecutors say the two men swore a formal oath of loyalty to al-Qaida as they conspired to use their skills in martial arts and medicine to aid international terrorism.

The men were arrested Friday following a sting operation that the government said started in 2003. If convicted, each could face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Good thing they weren’t pirating DVDs, or they’d really be in trouble.

SENATORS JOHN MCCAIN, LINDSEY GRAHAM, AND JOHN SUNUNU visited Uzbekistan last week and criticized the Karimov government’s record on democracy and human rights. The government refused to meet with them. Gateway Pundit has more, including pictures and video.

“DEEP THROAT” has been unmasked.

IN THE MAIL: A copy of Ben Shapiro’s book, Porn Generation : How Social Liberalism is Corrupting our Future.

While there’s no doubt that porn is much more widespread (amusingly, there’s a link to the “Paris Hilton collection” on Shapiro’s Amazon page), as I’ve noted before, there’s not much support for the idea that more-available porn (or pro-sex material generally) is doing any harm to America’s children.

DARFUR UPDATE: Lots of depressing news, here.

THIS WEEK’S GRAND ROUNDS is up, for all your healthcare-blogging needs.

UPDATE: More blog roundups:

The Carnival of Revolutions, featuring pro-democracy posts from around the world.

The Carnival of Cordite, a collection of shooting-related posts. (And, in a related topic, Alphecca’s weekly check on the bias looks at media coverage of guns).

The Carnival of the Liberated, featuring Iraqi and Afghan bloggers.

WE THE (MEDIA) PEOPLE: I’ve got a piece on citizens’ media in the Wall Street Journal today. It’s subscriber-only, but this link should work for everyone.

BUZZ ALDRIN has a new children’s book out, and the reason why makes sense:

Thanks to video games, TV shows and movies such as ”Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” that are loaded with special effects, today’s children don’t have a realistic impression of space or space travel, says Buzz Aldrin, one of the men who planted the U.S. flag on the moon.

But, he adds, it’s not the kids’ fault. Those working in the fields of math, science and engineering — the people who were inspired by the accomplishments of Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and others during the space exploration boom of the 1960s and ’70s — haven’t reached out enough to capture the youngsters’ interest, he says.

Buzz and I were on the National Space Society board back in the 1990s, and I was very impressed with his commitment to this kind of thing.

AH, DEMOCRACY:

Unlike France’s referendum, which was binding on the government, the Dutch vote is advisory. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s governing party said Monday it will accept a “no” verdict only if turnout reaches at least 30 percent and if 55 percent of those who vote reject the charter.

As Steven Den Beste noted, these votes are serving a valuable educational purpose as they reveal what the EU is all about. (Via PoliPundit).

IT’S NOT EASY BEING A TORY AT THE BBC: Though I don’t think it’s easy being a Tory anywhere these days.

I WISH THEY’D JUST MAKE SURE THEY CAN DO MATH:

Brooklyn College’s School of Education has begun to base evaluations of aspiring teachers in part on their commitment to social justice, raising fears that the college is screening students for their political views.

Sigh.

MICKEY KAUS expects a McCain third-party run in 2008. I doubt McCain would do that: It would be shameless grandstanding, putting himself and his pique above the welfare of his party. Unless, like Kaus, he thought he could win. . . .

UPDATE: But could McCain beat Fred Thompson?

SYLVAIN CHARAT looks at the aftermath of France’s E.U. referendum:

Immediately after the vote, European Commission President José Barroso acknowledged this was a serious problem for the Constitution. The UK now wonders whether it should even both to hold its own referendum. The Netherlands is bolstered in its intention to vote No. Poland is puzzled by such a result, especially when the French vilified so much the “Polish Plumber”, a character created to frighten French workers and make them believe the Constitution would open the doors to foreigners who would take their jobs. The Czech Republic can now be more opposed to the treaty. And Italy is wondering if it was too hasty in ratifying it.

Aside from this immediate reaction, a political trend has strengthened. The French referendum was not only about the European Constitutional Treaty, nor Europe itself. It was just a pretence to confirm a widespread feeling in the French political class, to spread fear among workers, to provide a life insurance policy for a close-to-bankruptcy welfare state. It was a referendum about the kind of society France wants. That is why the outcome was already known to most of us: It was No to free trade, and Yes to a collectivist society.

That doesn’t sound promising.

UPDATE: Greg Djerejian has much more, and predicts a political crisis in Europe:

The ultimate answer, at the risk of sounding too simplistic, is that not enough French people believe in a Greater Europe deep in their bones. Great leaders might have persuaded them through honesty and passion and charisma, but such leaders were manifestly not present. Now an era of confusion and flux looms for Europe. It is not a happy result, perhaps. But it is the reality that must be forcibly understood by European leaders if they can hope to turn around this debacle. If instead they insist on saying: “these were but French domestic troubles”, “the show goes on after a spot of reflection”, “it was but a plebescite on Jacques” and so on–it will mean yet again that no one is fundamentally addressing the basic issues that must be confronted head on.

I know which way to bet, based on recent performance. Meanwhile, The Belmont Club notes that it takes a theory to beat a theory, and, weak as the pro-EU arguments are, opponents will have to come up with an approach of their own.

And EurSoc rounds up winners and losers.

A CONSTRUCTIVE WAY TO OBSERVE MEMORIAL DAY, courtesy of ChicagoBoyz.

OUCH: Academic bitchslaps delivered by Ann Althouse and Orin Kerr.

WIRED has an article on Iranian blogmeister Hossein Derakshan.